Interviews

DENIS_48, administrator from sudden-strike-alliance forum interview
1. Hi. My name is Catalin, the alias in my blog being Roarke. My brother and i have one other blog, Dawn of Darkness (inspired from fantasy/history myths and some real facts), a Quake 2 mod, which we mod, besides Sudden Strike. There and in here, we talk about history. The simple rule being that we don't praise war, but human interactions, culture and history. We get inspired to play and learn from pc games and like history, because some romanian movies, like The Crown of Fire and Mărgelatu movie series.
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0126386
https://ro.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seria_Mărgelatu
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W9qRiU3ZKew

1. Hello, Roarke/Catalin it is nice to meet people interested in history & digging into "historical" wargames as well! In my opinion Sudden Strike is a really great franchise in regard to this aspect. Lots of WW2 battles can be simulated with Sudden Strike games and mods. People can learn a lot about events and battles that happened during this war.
I think Sudden' is the best "RTS/RTT" (real-time strategy/real-time tactics) game, or RTW (real-time wargame) game (as I like to call it), to have been created. Since 2000, Sudden Strike has generated a new wave of WW2 video games, starting with the "Blitzkrieg" series, and even inspiring (IMHO) the "Company of Heroes" series, at least to some extent.

Of course no one here is praising war, on the contrary. War should be kept behind theaters and computers' screens, and serve as an entertainment for the mind (similar to other games like chess).

May I add that watching the most realistic movies and playing to the most realistic games helps you to truly realize the horror of war, and to value peace even more. Yes, every soldier that dies on-screen is supposed to have friends, and a family that won't ever see him again. And yes, when you see that on your last game you killed 1000+ soldiers in just one fierceful battle, you shiver and pray for this to never happen again IRL... or at least not on that scale.

2. Why do you choosed Sudden Strike over other games ?
2. I started to play to Sudden Strike when I was very young (about 12 years old). Previously I had been playing to the Age of Empires series, starting with Rise of Rome, my favorite. But I remember I was getting more and more bored with base construction, simple paper-rock-scissors balances, quick & massive units production, and all the abuses surrounding these matters.
When I read in video games magazines about Sudden Strike, the way it introduced new gameplay features like paratroopers, destructible bridges that also could be repaired, pontoon bridges that could be built by supply trucks... and of course no base building (= only war and focus on tactics, with a limited number of units)... I was immediately hooked. I knew it woul perfectly replace AOE, as I thought it looked superior in every respect. I asked my parents to buy the game as soon as possible, and it became the best birthday present ever: I'm still playing to a modified Sudden Strike version today, and it still is my personal favorite game. I don't find the same appeal anywhere else in the RTS genra.

3. What is the history behind your french forum ?
3. That is a very good question. You see, this forum is the third version of our forums, and it opened in 2010. But French Sudden Strike forums already existed before, since 2000 and the release of the first Sudden Strike game. At that time it was called Sudden Strike Fanatique, it was very basic, as it still was the beginning of public Internet in France, but nevertheless it was operational. It wasn't my work at that time. I got involved in the Internet community later, in 2005-2006. So, other French fans, like "Czarziv", created this first version, in order to cover the emerging series. Sudden Strike has been a real hit in France, though less than in Germany and (of course) Russia. Still, it was one of the most played game on GOA.com, coming right after the AOE series.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOA_(portail_web)

Today our forum gathers most of the French-speaking Sudden Strike fans, and we started to cover other WW2 (and even Cold War) games. With the recent announcement of Sudden Strike 4 by Kalypso Media and Kite Games, we are really excited and ready to inform and communicate (in French) about this new title in our beloved franchise.
Of course we're also ready to test and play it as soon as it's out!

4. Do you keep connections with sudden strike arena site or mainly with the french site/forum ?
4. The Sudden Strike Arena, or should we say "Sudden Arena", was a website based on a really good idea (to offer a common dedicated space to all multiplayer Sudden Strike fans, with chatrooms and ranking systems), only it was badly managed (maybe on purpose). 
In our opinion, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and to their own tastes.
Nowadays the Sudden Arena does not exist anymore. We hope to bring it back at some point in the future, with better management.
As long as everybody is respectful, and does not insult, there should be no problems.

5. Do you think old style rts games are making a comeback ? I myself think they do, because the main reason is that the gameplay is above the rest. Not that the visuals are less important, but for me they can be as simple, but effective they can get.
5. A few months earlier I would've been very pessimistic about this topic. But now that Sudden Strike 4 has been announced, and that I have seen it running first-hand at the Gamescom, I must admit that maybe the slow-paced, old school RTSs are indeed making a comeback. I am really pleased to see this new trend. Because gameplay is indeed the key element. Modern graphics are a nice plus, but nothing more.
6. Any Sudden Strike secret mods in the making ?
6. Well, you know, it's a secret ;)
7. If you were to choose, what you will choose if Sudden Strike never existed ? I choose Close Combat series.
7. A hard question. I would probably still be playing to Age of Empires. Maybe Age of Empires 3? Or maybe would I be playing to Company of Heroes? (but as I said, without Sudden Strike, would COH even exist to begin with?) I do prefer RTSs, as you feel in control of something important, and you seem to have a large influence on the flow of events.

But maybe my tastes would've evolved towards something a little different, and I would be playing more hardcore wargames, and not something a little "in-between" like Sudden Strike. You never know...

8. Among the first tanks that i prefere is Char bis. What is yours ?
8. B1-Bis is a really nice tank indeed! Even by 1941 standards. And I'm not even talking about sadly unfinished but promising projects like B1-Ter.
Some other unfinished French projects looked also very good, like a version of the "G1". Some say that it would've been like a "French T-34", and maybe even better. Our people truly were genious of the armored warfare, a shame we did not have our tank factories in Africa as it would've helped Free France a lot more. But enough about unfinished tanks. I do like the classical Königstiger, Elefant (good front armor), and other massive monsters. I also do like the Italian Semovente 90 mm, which has a very nice gun (but very poor crew protection at the rear, if memory serves). Soviet tanks are also okay, but no personal favorite is coming to mind at this instant.

9. Do you prefer single player or multiplayer ?
9. Both are very good and different. Single player is better in order to simulate a historical situation, and play slowly with caution. It really feels like you've come back in time, and that you're about to change History, for better or worse.
Multiplayer is really fun though: you have to play faster and you control a lot more of units, but you still have to be very cautious as all the single player tricks still work, and micro-managing some units can make a difference.

10. Thank you for the answers.
10. You're welcome Roarke.

Sincerely,
Dennis

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